| Popis: |
The government's promise of redistribution and state-induced industrialization has formed a unique feature of the political environment surrounding the issues of equality, equity and social welfare in Korea. Defining what constitutes a fair distribution of goods has become a political matter around the question of a social welfare policy in the Republic of Korea. This study examined public conceptions of a fair distribution of income to poor families in Korean society. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of characteristics of poor families, the effects of the respondents' socio-economic status and the effects of the respondents' political attitudes on the respondents' support level for income assistance. The study sample was composed of 216 persons, 18 years of age and older, residing in private households in the metropolitan area of Pusan, in Korea. The research design was basically a cross-sectional survey method including 16 family vignettes. The effects of family characteristics were analyzed utilizing the Relative Importance in Conjoint Analysis and the results show the ranking of the effects of attributes and levels of poor families. Multiple regression analysis, t-tests and the analysis of variance were used to examine the influences of a person's socio-economic status and the influences of one's political ideology on the level of support. The basic finding is that the Korean public strongly support assistance to poor families that would allow such families to avoid the condition of poverty. Based on the study results, about 48 percent of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by need and deservingness of the characteristics of poor families, about 2 percent of the variance by the respondents' socio-economic status variables, and about 15 percent of the variance by the respondents' political and social views. The findings have implications for social welfare policy development and for the development of methodology on this topic. |
